How to improve waterpolo spreading and quality in countries like UK and US - Part 2

"with so many problems that the city of London has regarding pool space for waterpolo, the waterpolo arena was specifically built to be then shut down after the games, when there are teams in London (like mine!) asking so much for a new swimming pool where they can potentially train and practice, cause there are literally not other options"

Following what I have already explained you about UK and US waterpolo, here is what I think regarding what could be done to potentially improve the quality of the sport and the possibility to reach more people nationwide:

The UK waterpolo issues: what could be done

The UK main problem - In UK, what I see the main problem is (especially for a city like London) the lack in pool space/time: every single swimming/waterpolo club in London finds it very difficult and expensive to find and rent water space in London pools.

Not only there are not so many swimming pools available to play waterpolo (don't know why but a good 80% of the pools are shallow, which means that is impossible to play waterpolo) but also the costs are so expensive that the club, with the fees from every competitor, can pay just enough the rent of the pool space and the league fees (leaving all the other costs, from swim suits to travel costs, from coaches pays to hotel costs,to us players). 

 

My 1st suggestion to fix the problem - Therefore I think it could be very useful to start if one or maybe even a couple of clubs together (here clubs are mainly made of a big group of people/friends) decide to invest some money in building or buying an own pool, and then manage the pool so that to have a good income of money from general users and at the same time combine the needs of the teams and of the athletes: in the same way as it happens often in Italy. 

 

I think this is the only way every team can have more time to practice and potentially improve waterpolo quality. 

 

One example that I can give you to let you understand the situation and how people here still don't understand the importance of pool time/space for trainings, comes from the Olympic games 2012 in London: with so many problems that the city of London has regarding pool space for waterpolo, the waterpolo arena was specifically built to be then shut down after the games, when there are teams in London (like mine!) asking so much for a new swimming pool where they can potentially train and practice, cause there are literally not other options.

 

My 2nd suggestion to fix the problem - Furthermore, I would also put more effort from every club to search for sponsors: waterpolo is not a big sport in UK as it is not in Italy, but in our country it's still possible to find people keen to sponsor a waterpolo women team.....

so why not in UK which is the home site for many startups and small businesses?

Where people are still keen to risk and believe in other people potentials?

We players have tried to search for someone keen to help us, but I think this should be more of a duty of the club members who manage the finances of the team, rather than the players....but again, maybe this is the way I think just because I come from Italian waterpolo!

To be continued
Read the 1st article by Viviana Castagna